• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2009

A 10.4-m high highway embankment retained behind mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls is under construction in the northeastern part of the Indian state of Bihar. The structure is constructed with compacted, micaceous, grey, silty sand, reinforced with polyester (PET) geogrids, and faced with reinforced cement concrete fascia panels. The connections between the fascia panels and the geogrids failed on several occasions during the monsoon seasons of 2007 and 2008 following episodes of heavy rainfall, when the embankment was still under construction. However, during these incidents the MSE embankment itself remained by and large stable and the collateral damages were minimal. The observational data during these incidents presented an opportunity to develop and calibrate a simple procedure for estimating rainfall induced pore water pressure development within MSE embankments constructed with backfill materials that do not allow unimpeded seepage. A simple analytical finite element model was developed for the purpose. The modeling results were found to agree with the observational and meteorological records from the site. These results also indicated that the threshold rainwater infiltration flux needed for the development of pore water pressure within an MSE embankment is a monotonically increasing function of the hydraulic conductivity of backfill. Specifically for the MSE embankment upon which this study is based, the analytical results indicated that the instabilities could have been avoided by having in place a chimney drain immediately behind the fascia panels.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.1695-1704
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• 2008

The problems associated with constructing high-speed concrete track embankments over soft compressible soil has lead to the development and/or extensive use of many of the ground improvement techniques used today. Drains, surcharge loading, and geosynthetic reinforcement, have all been used to solve the settlement and embankment stability issues associated with construction on soft soils. However, when time constraints are critical to the success of the project, owners have resorted to another innovative approach. Especially, the design criteria of residual settlement is limited as 30mm for concrete track embankment, it is very difficult to satisfy this standard using the former construction method. Pile net method consist of vertical columns that are designed to transfer the load of the embankment through the soft compressible soil layer to a firm foundation and one or more layers of geosynthetic reinforcement placed between the top of the columns and the bottom of the embankment. This paper will present the guidelines for the design of pile net method to supported embankments. These guidelines were developed based on a review of current design methodologies and a parametric study of design variables using numerical modeling.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.477-483
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• 2000

Fly ash is the unburned residue resulting from the combustion of coal in utility and industrial boilers such as thermal power plants. Annually about 5 million tons of fly ash is being produced in korea. Less than 25 percent of total volume of fly ash is currently being used effectively for some ways. In the future, the volume of fly ash discharge from thermal power stations will be increasing more and more, and the development of the utilization of high volume fly ash is required. Fly ash has a lower compacted density and specific gravity than coarse grained natural aggregates but equivalent strength properties indicating that the fly ash could be used as a structural fill materials. So, clay-fly ash mixtures can be used as a fill material in the construction of embankments. Laboratory tests have been carried out to determine the physical, chemical, and geotechnical characteristics of the clay and fly ash. The fly ash is mixed with the clay in different proportions and the geotechnical characteristics of the mixtures have been studied also. In this study describes the results of the experimental study. The implications of the use of clay and clay-fly ash mixtures on the stability of embankments are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.5-16
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• 2005

Geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankments have been increasingly used and researched around the world. The inclusion of one or multiple geosynthetic reinforcements over the pile is intended to enhance the efficiency of load transfer from soft ground to piles, to reduce total and differential settlement and increase global or local stability. In this paper, the reinforcement effectiveness and arching effect of the geogrid-reinforced and pile-supported embankments have been studied in terms of field model tests and numerical analysis with varying the space between piles and reinforcement. 2-dimensional numerical analysis has been conducted using the FLAC (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) program. And load transfer mechanisms between soil-piles-geogrid were investigated. The mechanisms of load transfer can be considered as a combination of embankment soil arching, tension geogrid, and stress concentration due to the stiffness difference between pile and soft ground. Based on the field model test and numerical analysis results, it was found that the geosynthetic reinforcement slightly interferes with soil arching, and helps reduce differential settlement of the soft ground. Also. at the D/b=3 (D: spacing of pile cap, b: diameter of pile), the total settlement is reduced by about $40\%$ compared to that without reinforcement. For $D/b{\ge}6$, the effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement in reducing settlement is negligible.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.27-32
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• 2021

Due to heavy rainfall and typhoons caused by climate change, it has become common to witness heavy rain that exceeds the design frequency of agricultural reservoirs. This has brought greater attention to the safety of irrigation facilities including agricultural reservoirs. Out of approximately 17,740 reservoirs available in Korea, 83.87% were built before 1970. To ensure the safety of these old reservoirs, their embankments are being repaired and reinforced using various techniques. Among these techniques, using the cement-bentonite cutoff wall makes it possible to construct diaphragm walls with slurry composed of cement and bentonite, while excavation. The advantages of this technique include that it is simple and fast, and ensures the uniformity of cutoff walls by enabling the immediate application of the replacement method to excavation areas; thus excellent performance is guaranteed. However, despite these advantages, the technique is not commonly used in Korea. Thus, this study investigated the changes in strength and permeability by varying the mix ratio of cement and bentonite. As a major experimental results, when the cement of 200 kg/m³ and the bentonite of 60 to 80 kg/m³ is most suitable for the repair and reinforcement of the reservoir embankments.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.149-161
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• 2022

This study selected the indexes for evaluating the damage of the railway embankments due to liquefaction from the earthquake damage cases of railway embankments. The study correlated the selected indexes and the settlement of the embankment crest from the dynamic numerical analysis. Further, the correlation was used to develop a method for evaluating the liquefaction damage to the railway embankment. The damage cases and damage types were analyzed, and referring to the liquefaction damage assessment method for other structures, the embankment height (H), the non-liquefiable layer thickness (H₁), and the liquefaction potential index were selected as indexes for evaluating the damage. The study performed dynamic effective stress analyses on the railway embankment, and the PM4-Sand model was applied as the constitutive liquefaction model for the embankment foundation ground. The model's validity was first verified by comparing it with the existing dynamic centrifugal model test results performed on the railway embankment. Nine sites where the foundation ground can be liquefied were selected from the data of 549 embankments of the Honam High-speed Railway in Korea. Further, dynamic numerical analyses using four seismic waves as input earthquake load were performed for the selected site sections. The numerical analysis results confirmed the correlation between the evaluation indexes and the embankment crest settlement. A method for efficiently evaluating the damage to the embankment due to liquefaction was proposed using the chart obtained from this correlation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.35-45
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• 2010

The mechanism of load transfer by punching shear in pile-supported embankments is investigated. Based on the geometric configuration of the punching shear observed in sand fills on soft ground, a theoretical analysis is carried out to predict the embankment loads transferred on a cap beam according to punching shear developed in pile-supported embankments. The equation presented by the theoretical analysis was able to consider the effect of various factors affecting the vertical loads transferred on the cap beam. The reliability of the presented theoretical equation is investigated by comparing it with the results of a series of model tests. The model tests were performed on cap beams, which had two types of width; one is narrow width and the other is wide width. Sand filling was performed through seven steps. Two types of loading pattern were applied at each filling step; one is the long-term loading, in which sand fills at each filling step were kept for 24 hours, the other is the short-term loading, in which sand fills at each filling step were kept for 2 hours. The vertical loads measured in all model tests show good agreement with the ones predicted by the theoretical equation. Finally, the predicted vertical loads also show good agreement with the vertical loads measured in a well-instrumented pile-supported embankment in field, where cap beams were placed on too wide space.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.215-228
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• 2002

In a companion paper. (Oh, 2002), the constitutive model, called GUX model, was implemented as a user subroutine in ABAQUS code, where the GUX model could describe the behavior of overall strain range. An accuracy analysis verified that the implicit stress integration maintained the accuracy of solutions successfully. Since the GUX model is an anistropic hardening elasto-plastic constitutive model based on total stress concept, geotechnical problems under fully drained or undrained condition can be analyzed after acquisition of stress-strain relationships from drained or undrained triaxial tests. This study includes the analyses of the stability of embankments on soft clays and weathered soils and the example of axially loaded soil-pile system. In the large deformation analyses, geometric nonlinearity was considered and the result of analyses with GUX model was compared with that of Mises model for the overall strain range behavior.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.336-345
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• 2010

GS E&C was awarded the contract for the construction of Hanoi - Hai Phong Expressway Package EX-7 from Station Km 72+000 to Station Km 81+300 in December 2008. This project is the $7^{th}$ contract package of the 105.5 km long expressway near Hai Phong city, which includes a FCM-styled bridge along with high embankments over soft ground. For these high embankments, there is a need to treat the soft soil for improving the overall stability during construction and for reducing the post-construction settlement of the expressway. The Designer of this project had adopted four (4) different types of ground improvement techniques to treat the soft ground, including the prefabricated vertical drains (PVD), sand drains (SD), pack drains (PD, or sometimes called packed sand drains), and sand compaction piles (SCP). The main focus of soft soil treatment should be paid attention to the residual settlement after construction. In current design, however, it appeared that the secondary compression (or creep) of the improved soil layer and the consolidation settlement of the lower untreated compressible soil layer have been neglected in the estimation of the post-construction settlement. These uncalculated residual settlements may not only unsatisfy the design criteria but also raise serious problems during service period of this expressway. In this paper, the subsoil condition and current design were reviewed focusing on the employed soft soil treatment method and expected residual settlement.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.90-97
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• 1997

Field inspections and laboratory tests for 31 agricultural reservoirs in Kyungki province were performed to provide basic data for maintenance and rehabilitation of agricultural reservoirs and to evaluate structural degradation of agricultural reservoirs Results of the study are as follows : 1) From survey's results of embankments, signs of settlement and lateral movement are appeared in 17 reservoirs. Crest settlement of 20~80cm, downstream settlement of 10~90cm, and 20~160cm lateral movement of embankments are detected from settlement and movement analysis of 17 reservoirs. Crest and downstream settlements and lateral movement are greatly occurred in 20 ~ 40 years after embankment construction. 2) About 39% of total reservoirs shows seepage problems occurred in the lower part of berm and retaining wall located between embankment and spillway. Probability of seepage problems is higher at retaining wall than others. 3) Concrete strength estimated by Schmidt hammer in structures of reservoirs is a range of 100~l50kgf/$cm^2$ and average deviation of concrete strength is about l0kgf/$cm^2$. Strength difference$({\delta}S)$ between compressive strength estimated by Schmidt hammer and uniaxial compressive strength of concrete core is about $\pm$100kgf/$cm^2$. This difference is due to absence or presence of reinforced bar in concrete core, variable length of concrete core and limitation of Schmidt hammer. 4) About 68% of total reservoirs shows leaching, 58% alkali-aggregate reaction and 71 % abrasion/frost. Leaching, alkali-aggregate reaction and abrasion/frost occurred in most reservoirs when passed 10 years after construction of structure parts.